In 2011, shortly after taking on L’Etape du Tour (a grueling mountain stage of the Tour De France that 10,000 amateurs tackle every summer), my uncle, Nicholas Maude, discovered he had Kidney Cancer. 5 weeks later he died.

The day he found out he had Kidney Cancer he pondered the curious and indiscriminate nature of the dreaded “C”. He told me how he had sought to live an active and healthy life, particularly in light of his own Father’s (my grandfather’s) premature death from lung cancer. Despite this, he found himself lying on a hospital bed having just been told he was terminally ill.

For the first time in my life I was directly confronted with a true tragedy, for me, that day will forever remain a ‘milestone’: A moment in time that has shaped the rest of my life.  Nicholas’s death on the 25^th November 2011 remains the most significant day in my lifetime. I can vividly remember my sister walking into my bedroom, no words were necessary.  I uttered ‘he’s gone’ and she nodded…

So what challenge are we going to undertake to raise money for KCUK in my uncle’s memory? Myself, Tom Archer, Ranald Gordon (Musketeers) and Nick Guy (Casper) will cycle as a team in this year’s Etape du Tour(148km up two mountains in the Pyrenees, in under 9 hours) – what better way to do justice to my uncle’s memory.

Please follow our journey via our blog: www.3musketeersandcasper.tumblr.com Hopefully we will be able to give you a little taste of the enormity of the challenge in front of us or at the very least explain how we landed upon the name ‘The Three Musketeers and Casper’...